Saying he wanted to avoid distracting the Bush administration from the war in Iraq, Richard Perle (61) resigned as chairman of a Pentagon advisory board on Thursday following criticism for his role in advising a bankrupt telecommunications company seeking government approval to sell to foreign buyers.Perle said that he was stepping down voluntarily as chairman of the Defence Policy Board and that he had not been pressured by Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to do so. He said he would remain on the board but gave up the top job in order to spare the Bush administration from sharing criticism that he violated a government ethics prohibition against public officials using their offices for private gain.Global Crossing Inc, which runs a fibre-optic network, needs the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to sell a 61.5 per cent stake to Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and Singapore Technologies Telemedia.The panel has the authority to block mergers if it deems them harmful to American interests. Rumsfeld is among the 11 Cabinet members and high-ranking administration officials on that committee.Rumsfeld, who appointed Perle to the unpaid role as chairman of the board in 2001, accepted Perle’s resignation but said he asked Perle to remain as a member.Rumsfeld praised Perle as an ‘‘excellent chairman’’ with a ‘‘deep understanding of our national security process.’’ Perle said he would not accept a $600,000 bonus if the Global Crossing deal is approved and would donate the $125,000 fee for his services ‘‘to the families of American forces killed or injured in Iraq.’’‘‘I hope that it will relieve some of the avalanche of reporting that was a distraction for the secretary and certainly a distraction for me,’’ Perle said.Perle has been an intellectual force behind the war on Iraq. His recent problems emerged from reports describing his ties to companies that have business before the Defence Department. (LAT-WP)
